Since finding out about it, a lot of teachers have developed a vendetta against Wikipedia. I’ve known lots of kids who use it as their only source in a research paper, and teachers go bonkers when they see that. This is because Wikipedia is editable by anyone, making it an unreliable source for a formal report.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Wikipedia as much as the average person. Like any Internet hipster, I look up information on Wikipedia all the time. I know how much the regulars over there guard pages against any harm, but I also know that anyone who looks around long enough will find some incorrect fact on a page. I have found many, and I regret to say that Wikipedia isn’t as flawless as we’d all like it to be.

I just startled my husband by shouting aloud as I discovered my blog had been nominated for Best New Blog in the Edublogs awards! I remember looking at all the inspirational blogs in last year’s awards (just as I started on twitter!) and being inspired to start my own – the inspiration helped me realize it would help solve two problems I was finding:

I kept running out of space to express myself in the 140 characters allowed by Twitter

I needed a way to remember what I was doing!

Blogging has proved to be a tremendously powerful reflective tool, as well as a record of what has been going on in my class and cpd. It’s been a useful way for me to record my notes.

What has surprised me is how many others are interested in reading it too – but if my mistakes and/or successes help someone else in their own practice so they don’t have to reinvent the same wheels, then I am more than happy to share what I have been doing and what I have been learning.

I’ve been feeling a bit depressed for a few days now. The only thing that has changed was my interview going live last Friday… Or it could be PMS…

Either way, I’m a big fat ball of emotions right now and when I get this way I don’t want to work, or talk, or socialize or breathe.

A part of me wants to call my therapist, who is away for the next two weeks (talk about timing, huh?) and the other part of me wants to try to deal with this on my own. She isn’t going to be around forever, so I need to learn how to deal with this stuff without her…

I have been told several times in my life that I am too nice. In the past, I would be admonished by a friend or a boyfriend if I let someone in front of me in a line or give an able-bodied person my seat on a bus. I would just laugh it off because, in my mind, there was no problem… until recently. Now, for some reason, I am being treated like it’s some kind of horrible character flaw.

I’ve got good news and bad news. I think I’ll start with the good news.

I’m a member of The Mom Pledge Blog whose mission is to “eradicate cyber bullying among moms.” Apparently there are some mean mommies out there who take pleasure in criticizing, demeaning, and hassling their fellow moms.

As if being a mom isn’t hard enough without dealing with that kind of crap from somebody who should know better. I’m not a “cause” kind of gal, but this is one I support wholeheartedly. So I took The Pledge. If you’re interested, click the link, take The Pledge, and grab a button to display on your blog.

The first weekend of every month, The Mom Pledge Blog hosts a Blog Hop. Bloggers post links to their posts and everyone who posts visits each others blogs. It’s a great way to meet other bloggers. The remaining weekends of the month, one of the links if highlighted. This weekend, it’s mine! So, go on over to The Mom Pledge Blog and check it out!

When I was growing up my church had a saying on the wall in the entry way, “If You Are Too Busy, Then You Are Too Busy”. I never quite understood what that meant as a child. I mean it just didn’t make much sense to me.

However, after several years of being in business for myself, I began to get people coming to me asking if they could work for me or work with me… when the opportunity arose I would give some people that chance they had been pressing me about…

And believe it or not, more times than not once I opened up the opportunity I saw dismal performance, constant excuses, people wanting to be handheld… it was demoralizing for me.

In most states, the General Education Development (GED) examination was changed in 2014 and learners who have not completed the full examination by the end of this year, will see their scores not transferable anymore.

Roughly once every 10 years, the GED exam is updated because it is a high school equivalency test. That implies that the GED test-takers must meet up with the identical educative specifications as high school graduates would. Therefore it is a natural fact that the GED examination is changing according to high school curricula. Also, GED study materials need to change and many websites also upgraded their practice tests. So far, Covcell.com offers the best practice tests for GED preparation. You can find them here.

My nephew decided finally to get his GED certificate so when I just read an article about an online program for GED preparation, I told him about it. And you know what he said? “I don’t need it”, “I can learn by myself”, ” It’s just not really my thing.”. It made me so angry but then I realized he is afraid of being criticized for his lack of educational achievements.

Criticism comes in all forms – “I’ve seen better.” “I don’t get it. “No offense, but…” “If you just changed this one little thing, it would work.” Criticism can be helpful or devastating depending on who and where it’s coming from. Don’t ignore the critics – but understand that critics will offer up criticism for a variety of reasons:

The sun is setting over Lake Titicaca, turning the sky several spectacular hues of crimson and gold. Perched high above the bay amidst some bizarrely hewn rocks-the ruins of an Inca astrological site-I’m taking part in an Andean Pachamama ceremony, offering gifts of coca leaves to the omniscient Earth Mother and protector.

The typical traveler who’s been seduced by the cosmic vibe of the place where-according to Inca legend-the sun and the moon were born, I’m hoping for some kind of meaningful, spiritual experience.

My friendly local guide, Ramón, is missing a few teeth but full of engaging facts about traditional practices. As we meditate over an assortment of symbolically shaped sugar tablets, then set them alight, I do my best to feel connected to the energies of the awe-inspiring surroundings.

Did you know that McDonald’s in Japan offers a “smile” on the menu? It is a real smile for free. On the menu board, it clearly says, “Smile….0” in Japan. You can see this sign at any McDonald’s restaurant in Japan.

Therefore if you have a chance to eat at McDonald’s in Japan, you should ask them, “Can I have a smile?” I am sure they would give you a big smile. To my surprise, however, I learned that there is no such a thing in the U.S.A. I think this difference is based on cultures.

I don’t know if you remember my article “Something about bee,” that I wrote last year. When I went to buy medicine for a bee-sting, the sales lady said, “we have some products to offer, but they don’t really work that well”. Though my bee sting was very painful and I needed immediate relief, I was very impressed by her honesty and I recognized the differences between cultures on that day.